Our Story
HOW WE CAME TO BE
OUR ROOTS
Ice & Fire Distillery was born from our local area and a family of Highland Crofters wanting to try something different to sustain our crofting lives.
We all have crofts but the crofting way of life has to be supplemented to survive. What better way to survive than to make spirits from the local water and botanicals which harks back to an era when crofters made illegal whisky on their crofts. We started off with a 5 litre alembic still, moving up to a 10 litre, a 20 litre, a 100 litre and 2 x 200 litre Hoga Stills
We have had a great time developing recipes, getting friends and family to taste and give feedback and settled on our first two gin recipes “Caithness Gin” and Crofter’s Tears”, and now Caithness Raiders Rum.
OUR BRAND
We have tried to instill our background and heritage into the bottle, label and branding of our designs. Our bottles have been designed by us and represent both the area and our lives. The bottles have heather embossed around the bottom and the Ice and Fire logo and lettering are embossed on the glass.
The label represents the area we live in with the mountains of Morven and Scaraben, the crofthouse and the Wade bridge at Latheronwheel. The stag harks back to our heritage with Iain having been a gamekeeper all of his life.
OUR ARTISAN ETHOS
The Ice and Fire Distillery ethos is to distinguish our truly ‘artisan’ products. As craft distillers we can prove our craftsmanship and authenticity to restore the craft definition and consumer trust.
We ensure authenticity throughout our brand by using more natural home grown ingredients in our spirits.
Our ethos is to combine our knowledge and skills in distilling with our passion for the ingredients we use, to ensure that every bottle of spirits we produce is truly hand crafted, small batch and artisan. It is not just ingredients that goes into our bottles, it is our soul and character.
OUR ARTISAN PRODUCTS
We have carried through the crofting and Highland heritage with our ingredients using what has been around in the Highlands for generations. Purple heather is our signature ingredient in Crofters Tears. All the life we have lived with the sight of beautiful blooming purple heather on our doorstep so it was a must in any product and we are delighted that Crofter’s Tears Gin tastes as good as the heather looks.
Caithness Highland Gin uses rhubarb which was and still is a staple in any crofting garden along with salmonberries picked from the Latheronwheel Strath.
Caithness Raiders Rum harks back to the Viking Heritage of Caithness with our ferocious seas and Norse names. This dark spiced rum is the Dark and Wild side of Caithness…..
We prefer to think of our experimenting as a touch of alchemy and it has been hugely pleasurable to produce something we know is truly local and artisan in its origins.
